What We are Reading and Watching

This book, by the Guardian’s Economics Editor Paul Mason, first appealed to me because it offered a new post-capitalist economic model where technology and automation are the primary drivers of change. Much has been written about how automation, robots and AI will decimate the world of work, so a book on how these technologies were a force for good is ... Read More

Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies By Nick Bostrom Nick Bostrom’s book is a comprehensive assessment of the risk of ‘super intelligence’ and what the human race will need to do in order to avert global disaster. Super-intelligence is used here in its broadest sense - it is not limited to artificial intelligence but includes (and defines) different outcomes such as whole ... Read More

Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future By Martin Ford Martin Ford has done it again. For those who’ve read his 2006 work, “The Lights in the Tunnel”, you will know that Martin was years ahead of others in discussing the collective landscape of work automation technologies (RPA, Machine Learning, AI), and the potential impacts ... Read More

Proving that the automation trend has mass appeal, this video blog has racked up over 3 million hits. It tells the same story as many prior books and papers, but does so in a creative, visual, and humorus way. C.G.P. Grey is well known for his edgy and educational content. This is well worth a watch. While we think it ... Read More

If you want to survive in the cocktail parties we go to, you have to read this book. It's the academic point of view on the siren call that is automation. Built on standard foundations (Moore's Law, Big Data, etc.), this book goes on to explore the optimist vs. pessimist view of a future where labor and economic value need ... Read More

The grand-daddy of them all, this seminal research by HfS is now two years old, but still as insightful and interesting as the day we first read it. It includes coverage on RPA trends (before we started calling it that), how to identify good processes for automation, the benefits, and what steps you should take to be successful. Frankly, if ... Read More

A thoughtful piece of research by Everest and sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation as part of their Digital Jobs Africa Initiative. It discusses why Impact Sourcing is good and good for you. Lower costs than BPO, same (or better) quality, lower attrition and the services firms themselves seem happy with the results they are achieving. While apparently 60+% of Impact ... Read More

Looking to read thousands of quotes? This is the report for you. This is particularly intersting because it is built around the contention between futurist optimists and futurist pessimists, in regards to the societal impact of work automation. Will there be enough jobs? Will our education system adapt? Will social welfare, work hours, compensation evolve to support a new form ... Read More

If you ever wonder where statistics on automation are coming from, you need look no further than this report done by two Oxford professors. In it, they evaluate 702 job types based on characteristics that suggest how 'automatable' the work is - including mechanical and software robots. The conclusions are shocking. Check this out and see if you're safe, or ... Read More

Long before there was Data on Star Trek, there were the Roboti - organic synthetic robots that could be mistaken as people. In fact, this play is where it all began. It is the first recorded use of the word "robot" - from the Slovac word "robota" for "work". Written in 1921, by the Czech playwright Karel Čapek, it is some ... Read More